Server shot in the face by twin sisters over missing $3 hamburger recalls panic: ‘I’m probably gonna die here’
Breanta and Bryanna Johnson, 20-year-old twins who assaulted Rodriguez, have been arrested
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A Wisconsin restaurant worker who was shot in the face last month for a missing order said that he thought he would die that day and never see his three-year-old son again.
Anthony Rodriguez, 26, is recovering with injuries in his neck, tongue, and a fractured spine. A bullet is still lodged in a “precarious part of his throat” and his long-term prognosis is unknown, according to a fundraiser set up by his family.
Breanta and Bryanna Johnson, the 20-year-old twin sisters who assaulted Mr Rodriguez on 30 January, were arrested four days after the incident, and are facing attempted homicide charges, police said. They each face a single count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and face up to to 65 years in prison.
Mr Rodriguez said he was the only server working around midnight at a George Webb location in Wauwatosa, when the twin sisters became angry over a $3 (£2.2) hamburger missing from their order, according to local outlet WISN-TV.
“I do remember just laying on the ground and just bleeding out,” he said. “I was in so much shock. I don’t really remember being in much pain, but I remember kind of internally freaking out and being very scared and just telling myself, ‘Wow, I’m probably gonna die here.’”
The man feared he would never see his son again and was “disappointed that it had to come to this”.
A fundraiser has been set up to cover for Mr Rodriguez’s medical treatment cost. He has no income currently since he has to spend time in recovery.
Images of his mouth’s scans revealed the damage to his jawbone, and the bullet still lodged in his throat.
Mr Rodriguez was released from the hospital more than two weeks after the incident with a neck brace to stabilise a part of his spine fractured by the bullet.
“I don’t use this word lightly, but Anthony is a walking miracle,” Anne Marrie, who set up the fundraiser on behalf of the family, said.
“The bullet went in between his upper lip and his nose and instead of traveling straight back in what would have surely been a fatal shot, it took out his teeth and entered the neck near the back of the throat where it curved around his head and fragmented in his spine and the back of his skull,” Ms Marrie said.